Tuesday, 20 May 2008

Oliver turned 5 this last week and it couldn't come a day too soon for him. He was so excited and has been counting the days until his birthday for about the last six months!

He had a birthday party at a nearby playgym with all of his classmates and some other school friends and neighbours. They had a fantastic time playing traditional party games such as pass the parcel, musical bumps and musical chairs as well as the more modern hour running around the playgym till their clothes were stuck to their skin with sweat.

Oliver was very lucky to get lots of lovely gifts from his friends and he is now in possession of some serious electrical gadgets and lego which hopefully will see him through for quite a while yet.

On his birthday he woke us all up at 6.30am so we could watch him open his presents, which he did with his usual gusto. He got a new bike for his birthday from us but it had to be exchanged that day as no sooner did we get it home than we realised it wasn't quite big enough. Oliver didn't seem to mind and managed to pick for himself the only BMX in the world with a large shopping basket attached. Leigh is mortified but Oliver can't see the problem as it is just the right size for Optimus Prime to travel up front with a good view!

I'm experimenting with new ways of loading my photos as the Blogger system takes soooo long I lose the will to live when doing these posts (one of the main reasons they are sporadic really!). So, I'm test driving "SmileBox" this time after realising that the Picasa one I used below for Aimee's Communion had used up all my "Free" memory on that site and they wanted up to $500US for a year - sod off!!!! So, I'm going with the Free sites and seeing how I get along. Tell me if it works/doesn't work/is annoying so I work out what is best.

Monday, 19 May 2008

Got a number of things to post about over the coming days, including Oliver's Fifth birthday, Leigh's parents visit and Aimee's First Holy Communion.

I'll start with the First Holy Communion as that is the only one I've finished organising the photographs for so far!

Aimee made her First Holy Communion on Saturday 17 May at St Ignatius Catholic Church in Singapore. It was a wonderful day with blue skies and glorious sunshine (which for those of you who've visited or lived here will know is not actually as frequent an occurrence as others may believe!).

Aimee has been going to class since last August in preparation for this big day and she has taken the whole thing very seriously. She looked absolutely beautiful in her dress and despite some nerves, handled the whole thing very well. There were 148children making their Communion on the day so it was a very busy afternoon at Church with lots of children, families and friends packing the church to standing room only. Crikey, I would have been nervous with all those people watching me.

I was so proud of her I nearly cried. I can't believe she is going to be 10 years old soon. Leigh and I gave her a small Cross to wear with her dress and to mark the occasion and whenever I saw her getting a bit too anxious, I noticed she would touch her necklace and smile. She is a sentimental little thing already - definitely a romantic in the making with our Aimee!

After the mass had finished we went to a nearby pub/restaurant with about 10 other families for drinks, dinner, cake and games for the kids. It was all very lovely and a great way to end a fantastic day.

There are lots of lovely pictures to share with you all so I'm trying out a new way of posting them by putting them into a slide show and adding that here. So this is my attempt, lets hope it works.....

PS If you click on the Slideshow you should jump to the webpage where the online Album is stored. Then you can have a clearer look at the photos and download some if you like (thinking of you Mum, Dad, Sarah & Natalie xx)

The New Addition....

Annabelle Rose Leather born on 9 February 2008

Finally! A picture of all 5 of us.

Life in Singapore

I've started this Blog so I can share our experiences in Asia with our friends and family in the UK.
Since moving to Singapore in July 2006 life has been hectic but fun and I hope this Blog will serve as a Diary of our time here which we can look back on when we return to England.
I'll be posting photographs and video clips with notes on what we have been up to, please feel free to leave your comments.

About Me

I'm a thirty something former Lawyer who spends her life cleaning, shopping & cooking for her 3 children, 1 husband and a crazy small dog in the beautiful English countryside. I love my family, frothy coffee, good food, bad tv and gossip but not always in that order!